The trust problem
One of the old saws of mainstream journalism is that it owns trust, that’s why people go to it. But we keep seeing polls that belie that, the latest from Harris, which found that less than half of Americans trust most media.
During this political primary season, the media, especially cable news networks, have seen a large increase in viewers, listeners and/or readers. But, with all this do people actually trust the media? The answer is not really. Looking at the press in general, over half (54%) of Americans say they tend not to trust them, with only 30 percent tending to trust the press. Just under half (46%) of Americans say they do not trust television, while one-third (36%) do trust them. Somewhat surprisingly, Internet news and information sites do slightly better as a plurality of Americans (41%) trust them while just one-third (34%) tend not to trust them. And, radio tends to do best among Americans as 44 percent say they tend to trust it and one-third (32%) tend not to trust radio. . . .Overall, Democrats are more likely to trust the media than Republicans, even with regard to radio. Just over half of Democrats (51%) trust radio compared to 45 percent of Republicans, and 45 percent of Democrats tend to trust Internet news and information sites compared to 40 percent of Republicans. The largest differences are for television and the press. Half of Democrats (50%) say they tend to trust television compared to three in ten (31%) Republicans. When it comes to the press in general, a plurality of Democrats (43%) say they tend to trust them, but only one in five (19%) of Republicans say the same.
I don’t think it’s surprising at all that the internet has better scores than the press. That’s surprising only to the press. And therein lies, I think, a solution to the problem: The press is a them and the internet is an us. The more that news organizations involve their publics, the more the public feels a stake and ownership in journalism, the more the public has an influence on journalism and its means and use of resources, the better chance there is that people will trust that journalism. Yes, predictably, I’ll say this is about collaboration but not just in reporting. This is also about collaborating to decide what stories deserve ever-more-scarce-and-precious journalistic resources. This is about more openness, transparency, and respect shown by the journalists. This about journalism trying to become first-first plural.
Tags: journalism, trust
March 7th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Jeff, Actually I think it is more about mainstream journalism acting like they are worthy of our trust by admitting their biases and their inability to always deliver the truth. These are not weaknesses. They have set impossible expectations, so never measure up to them. Consequently, they come across as thick-heads, or as liars, or as manipulators. Internet sources are neither less biased nor more accurate — just more honest and less likely to disappoint. (Steve Boriss, The Future of News)
March 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Jeff, I’d be interested to know what you consider to be the top five internet news and information sites?
March 7th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I’d like to hear Jeff’s answer as well.
Mine are NPR.org, news.google.com, my bloglines subscription list, my del.icio.us network, and philly.com for local news.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Declaration of Independent Democrats
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the people of a political party to make a Pledge that on November 4, 2008, I will only vote for the candidate that wins the most pledged delegates in the Democratic nomination process of 2008. If through an undemocratic act of arrogance the party leadership or Super Delegates override the will of the pledged delegates and not offer the legitimate winner of all the pledged delegates as the parties nominee, I will only vote for the legitimate winner of the pledged delegates as a Write In Candidate on November 4, 2008. This pledge is made as an act of moral conscious in the name of justice, honor, liberty and democracy. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we should declare the causes which impel us to sign this Declaration of Independent Democrats Pledge.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all women and men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness along with the right to collectively determine the nominee of our party based on the popular vote of each and every member within our party. There is no place for the elitist undemocratic institution of a Super Delegate in the Democratic Party, for we are the party of and by the people.
The purpose of this pledge is to stop Senator Hillary Clinton from leading the Democrat Party into a suicide charge of spin and hype that dishonestly will perpetrate an undemocratic and Un-American disenfranchisement of the loyal Democrat voters that participated in ALL the Democrat Primaries and Caucuses. In simple terms, we don’t want Senator Clinton to do the same thing to us that George W. Bush did to us in 2000; steel the election.
This is not a threat, it is a serious pledge and before making this pledge really ask yourself if you intend to back it up.
This is not a strategic pledge it is a moral one that is meant to inform the corrupt and arrogant powerful within the Democratic Party that we the people will not put up with anything but a legitimates democratic out come in the picking of the Democrat Party’s Nominee for the President of the United States. To be consistent with the morality of fairness Florida and Michigan must be redone, allowing a fair competition. This actually benefits Senator Clinton by giving her more potential elected delegates to try and win to over come Senator Obama’s delegate lead. This is honorable and legitimate and fair.
With regard to the extremely undemocratic existence of the Super Delegates, this should be the last election that Super Delegates take part in. The Democratic Party needs to really be a party of the people and abolish the Super Delegates after this election. Sadly in this election the Super Delegates have to determine the future of the Democratic Party, so they seriously need to consider the impact of this pledge and the impact of their actions!